of the plains tribes, organized a great expedition for the purpose of
exterminating the immigrant tribes in eastern Kansas, whose presence was
beginning to be felt in an ominous decrease of the buffalo. Although
this was perhaps the largest war party ever raised by the plains Indians
south of the Sioux country, being estimated to number 1,500 warriors,
they were ingloriously defeated with heavy loss by a party of Sauk and
Fox numbering hardly a hundred, the result being due to the fact that
the latter were armed with long-range rifles, while their enemies had
only bows and arrows. Almost every old man of the Kiowa now alive was
in this battle, which is famous among all the tribes of the southern
plains (see the calendar).
In the same year, according to Clark, a party of 113 Pawnee was cut off
and slaughtered almost to a man by an overwhelming force of Cheyenne and
Kiowa (_Clark, 19_). There is no record of this engagement on the
calendars, although several minor encounters with the Pawnee are noted
about this time.
HOSTILE DRIFT OF THE KIOWA
In the next few years we find little of importance recorded of the Kiowa
beyond concurrent statements of both military and civil officials that
they were growing constantly more insolent and unmanageable. In 1856 a
war party of nearly one hundred arrived at Albuquerque, New Mexico,
having passed through the center of the settlements of that territory,
on their way to attack the Navaho. They were turned back by the military
commander, committing several depredations as they retired (_Report,
5_). Two years later another large war party, together with some
Cheyenne, passed Fort Garland, Colorado, almost on the great divide, in
pursuit of the Ute (_Report, 6_).
[Illustration: FIG. 44--Dohásän or Little-bluff, principal chief,
1833--1866 (after Catlin, 1834)]
DEFIANT SPEECH OF DOHÁSÄN
On one occasion, during the distribution of the annuity goods on the
Arkansas, when fifteen hundred lodges of Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche,
Kiowa, and Apache were encamped along the river, the agent took the
opportunity to tell the Kiowa as plainly as possible that if they did
not cease their depredations the government would not only withhold
their presents but would send troops to punish them. The great chief
Dohásän, after listening in respectful silence to the end, sprang to his
feet, and, calling the attention of the agent to the hundreds of tipis
in the valley below, replied in a characteristic speech:
The white chief is a fool. He is a coward. His heart is small--not
larger than a pebble stone. His men are not strong--too few to
contend against my warriors. They are women. There are three
chiefs--the white chief, the Spanish chief, and myself. The Spanish
chief and myself are men. We do bad toward each other sometimes,
stealing horses and taking scalps, but we do not get mad and act
the fool. The white chief is a child, and like a child gets mad
quick. When my young men, to keep their women and children from
starving, take from the white man passing through our country,
killing and driving away our buffalo, a cup of sugar or coffee, the
white chief is angry and threatens to send his soldiers. I have
looked for them a long time, but they have not come. He is a
coward. His heart is a woman's. I have spoken. Tell the great chief
what I have said (_Report, 7_).
SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC OF 1861-62
In the winter of 1861-62 the smallpox, brought back from New Mexico by a
party of Kiowa returning from a trading trip, again ravaged the Kiowa,
Comanche, and other tribes of the plains (see the calendar). To prevent
a recurrence of the disease, the government soon afterward took measures
for vaccinating the western Indians. In the summer of 1863 a delegation
of Kiowa visited Washington and gave permission for the establishment of
mail stations along the roads through their country in southeastern
Colorado (_Report, 8_).
INDIAN WAR ON THE PLAINS, 1864
The chronic raiding still continued. In 1860 the troops had been ordered
to chastise the Kiowa and Comanche, but apparently with little effect.
Then came the rebellion, involving all the civilized and partly
civilized tribes of the south and reacting on the wild tribes of the
plains. At the same time the fugitive hostiles from the Sioux war in
Minnesota in 1862, who had taken refuge with their western brethren of
the same tribe, helped to increase the ferment. There is evidence also
that agents of the Confederacy had something to do with this result. In
the fall of 1863 it was learned that a combination had been formed by
the Dakota, Cheyenne, part of the Arapaho, the Kiowa, Comanche, and
Apache--all the principal fighting tribes--to inaugurate a general war
along the plains in the spring. To meet the emergency, messages were
sent out to the different tribes in June, 1864, directing all friendly
Indians to repair at once to certain designated military posts, with a
warning that all found away from these posts after a certain date would
be considered hostile. As it was difficult for troops to distinguish one
tribe from another, an order was issued at the same time prohibiting the
friendly Indians in eastern Kansas from going out on their usual buffalo
hunt upon the plains.
Only a part of the Arapaho, and later some of the Cheyenne, responded
and came in. After waiting a sufficient time, Governor Evans of Colorado
issued a proclamation in the summer of 1864 designating all Indians
remaining out as hostiles, whom all persons were authorized to kill and
destroy as enemies of the country, wherever they might be found
(_Report, 9_). In August the agent at Fort Lyon, Colorado, for the
Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, wrote that "the orders
are to kill every Indian found in the country, and I am inclined to
assist in carrying the orders into effect" (_Report, 10_).
The official reports covering the summer of 1864 are full of notices of
murders and depredations on the plains. The agent of the Overland Mail
stated in August that as a consequence the company had been compelled to
abandon all its stations for a distance of 400 miles, while every ranch
within the same section had been deserted. He reported that the Indians
"arrogantly declare that the land belongs exclusively to them; they
intend to regain and hold it if they have to destroy every white man,
woman, and child to accomplish their purpose. It would seem that the
recent enormous emigration across the plains has alarmed many of the
tribes and infused into their rude minds the belief that the whites were
about to take possession of their country" (_Report, 11_). The great
emigration referred to was in consequence of the rush to the gold mines
of Pike's Peak, discovered in 1858.
VACCINATION AMONG THE PLAINS TRIBES--SET-T'AIÑTE
As usual, the Indians had deferred hostilities until the grass was
high enough in the spring to enable their ponies to travel. In April a
government physician, who had been sent among these tribes to vaccinate
them as a protection from the smallpox which had recently decimated
them, as already noted, found them all apparently friendly.
From him we have an interesting description of the appearance and
home life of the famous chief Set-t'aiñte. He writes from Fort Larned:
I have been two weeks among the Kiowas, about 40 miles up the
Arkansas river. I was four days in Satana's [_Set-t'aiñte_] or
White Bear's village, who is, I believe, their principal chief. He
is a fine-looking Indian, very energetic, and as sharp as a brier.
He and all his people treated, me with much friendship. I ate my
meals regularly three times a day with him in his lodge. He puts on
a good deal of style, spreads a carpet for his guests to sit on,
and has painted fireboards 20 inches wide and 3 feet long,
ornamented with bright brass tacks driven all around the edges,
which they use for tables. He has a brass French horn, which he
blew vigorously when the meals were ready. I slept with Yellow
Buffalo, who was one of the chiefs that visited Washington with
Major Colley. They have quite a number of cows and calves and a
good many oxen and some mules and American horses that they say
they stole from Texas. A body of Kiowas and Comanches and some
Cheyennes intend to make another raid into Texas in about five or
six weeks.
It will be remembered that Texas was at this time in armed rebellion
against the general government, a fact which confirmed the Indians in
their belief that Texans and Americans were two distinct and hostile
nations. With correct prophecy the doctor surmises that a successful
result in the contemplated raid will encourage them to try their hand
farther north. By this time he had vaccinated nearly all the Indians of
the upper Arkansas (_Report, 12_). Fort Larned, in western Kansas, was
then the distributing point for the goods furnished by the government to
the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache.
[Illustration: Photo by Soule, about 1870
FIG. 45--Set-t'aiñte (Satanta) or White-bear]
THE LITTLE ARKANSAS TREATY IN 1865
In a few months the grass was up and a change came o'er the spirit of
the dream. Hostilities had begun on the plains, and in order that the
innocent might not be punished with the guilty, the friendly tribes
along the eastern border had been forbidden to go out into the buffalo
country. This deprivation of accustomed privileges naturally caused
great dissatisfaction among the friendly Indians, who had come to depend
on their annual buffalo hunt to eke out their scanty food supply, and
they complained bitterly that the government had been feeding and
clothing the hostiles, while they themselves had been left to starve.
In a strong letter their agent writes that, while he has a desire to
shield all Indians from wrong and severe treatment, yet "lead, and
plenty of it, is what the Kiowas want and must have before they will
behave." He denounces them as murderous thieves, and says that he has
had personal experience of their insolence and outrages (_Report, 13_).
The incidents of this war noted on the calendar are the encounter at
Fort Larned, in which the Kiowa ran off the horses of the soldiers, and
the attack on a Kiowa camp by a detachment of troops and Ute Indians
under command of Kit Carson (see the calendar).
From the agent's report it appears that the Indians had begun
hostilities in the summer simultaneously on the Platte and the Arkansas,
and up to September had killed a number of people and run off several
thousand head of horses, mules, and cattle. Communication between the
Colorado settlements and the Missouri had been almost entirely cut off,
the overland coaches had to be supplied with large escorts, and emigrant
trains were compelled to combine for safety. It was thought that all the
tribes of the plains were on the warpath together. The Indians were well
mounted, knew the whole country perfectly, and so far, in every contest
on anything like equal terms, had proven themselves a match for the
white soldiers. As nearly the whole available force of the government
was then employed in suppressing the rebellion, no additional troops
could be sent to the frontier, and Governor Evans of Colorado asked and
received permission to raise a force of volunteers against the hostiles.
It was the opinion of many persons, including army officers stationed in
the country, that the whole trouble might have been averted had the
Indians been properly treated by the whites (_Report, 14_).
In spite of the serious condition of affairs it was evident that the
chiefs did not want war. Early in September peace overtures were
received from the Cheyenne and Arapaho, who soon after came in and
camped as directed near Fort Lyon, Colorado. A month later the agent
reported that the Kiowa and Comanche had committed no depredations for a
long time and were supposed then to be south of the Arkansas, near the
Texas border (_Report, 15_). Before the trouble began they had been
encamped on the Arkansas, near Fort Larned. As the tribes had now
expressed their desire for peace, a commission was sent out early in
1865 to meet them for that purpose. The commissioners met the Kiowa,
Comanche, and Apache on August 15 at the mouth of the Little Arkansas,
where now is the town of Wichita, Kansas, and received their promise to
cease hostilities and to meet the same commission in October to make a
regular treaty of peace. Three days later the Cheyenne and Arapaho
entered into a similar agreement at the same place. The Kiowa chiefs
signing the agreement were Dohásän as head chief, Gúi-pä´go
("Lone-wolf"), Sét-dayâ´-ite ("Many-bears"), Set-t'aiñte ("White-bear"),
Te'né-angópte ("Kicking-bird"), and Set-ĭmkía ("Pushing-bear," commonly
known as Stumbling-bear), with Sét-tádal ("Lean-bear") for the Apache,
and eight of the Comanche. Credit for this result is due largely to the
efforts of agent Leavenworth, who secured a suspension of military
operations while he went out to bring in the Indians, a matter of
peculiar difficulty in view of their fresh recollection of the massacre
of friendly Cheyenne by Colonel Chivington in the autumn of the
preceding year (_Report, 16_).
Pursuant to agreement, commissioners met the five tribes in October,
1865, at the mouth of the Little Arkansas, where treaties were made with
the Cheyenne and Arapaho on the 14th, with the Apache on the 17th, and
with the Kiowa and Comanche on the 18th. By the treaty with the Apache
they were officially detached from the Kiowa and Comanche and attached
to the Cheyenne and Arapaho, who agreed to relinquish their reservation
in southeastern Colorado for one farther south, in Kansas and Indian
Territory. The Kiowa and Comanche agreed to remove south of the
Arkansas, the reservation proposed for their future home being a tract
in western Texas and Oklahoma, as follows: Commencing on the Canadian
river where the eastern line of New Mexico crosses the same; thence
running south along said line to the southern boundary of New Mexico;
thence in a northeastwardly direction to the headwaters of Big Wichita
river; thence down said river to its mouth or its junction with Red
river; thence due north to Canadian river; thence up the Canadian to the
place of beginning. By this treaty, which was intended, to be only
temporary, they gave up all claims in Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico,
and were restricted to southwestern Oklahoma and the region of the
Staked plain in Texas. Five white captives were surrendered by the Kiowa
and Comanche at the same time (_Treaty_).
DEATH OF DOHÁSÄN
In the course of the talk Dohásän, on behalf of his people, made a
vigorous protest against being confined to a reservation, claiming that
the Kiowa owned from Fort Laramie and the North Platte to Texas and had
always owned it, and that he did not want his country cut up and divided
with other tribes or given to the white man; his people wanted a large
country to roam over; they did not want to stay long in one place, but
wanted to move about; the Santa Fé road was open and would not be
disturbed, but the rest of their country he wanted let alone.
Notwithstanding this protest the treaty was signed. Among others
officially present were Kit Carson, William Bent, and Agent Leavenworth,
with William Shirley and Jesse Chisholm as interpreters (_Report, 17_).
Dohásän died shortly afterward, early in 1866, and with his death began
the rapid decline of the Kiowa tribe. He was succeeded by Gúi-pä´go,
"Lone-wolf," adopted father of the present chief of the same name. But
the Indian day was drawing to a close. Within a few years the Kiowa were
practically prisoners on a reservation, and their chiefs were the
creatures of petty factions and mere figureheads in the hands of the
government.
KIOWA RAIDS CONTINUED
As a result of these peaceful efforts, there were but few reports of
disturbances during the next year, excepting from the incorrigible
Kiowa. Notwithstanding all their promises, Set-t'aiñte led a war party
into Texas and returned with five captives, a woman and four children,
whom he brought into Fort Larned for ransom. The agent sharply reminded
him of his promise to cease such acts, and demanded the surrender of the
prisoners without compensation, whereon, under pretense of consulting
the other chiefs, Set-t'aiñte took them to Fort Dodge, where the
commander, compassionating their condition, rescued them for a large
sum. In reporting the circumstance, their agent urges that it is high
time the Kiowa were made to feel the strong arm of the government as the
only means of bringing them to a sense of their duty, as they even went
so far as to boast that stealing white women was a more lucrative
business than stealing horses (_Report, 18_).
Other complaints came in during the next year, but full investigation by
the military authorities satisfied them that with the exception of this
raid by Set-t'aiñte the Kiowa and Comanche were innocent (_Report, 19_).
Accordingly measures were taken to arrange a meeting with these tribes
to establish more definite treaty relations, as contemplated in the
provisional treaty of 1865. Preliminary to this meeting Agent Labadi,
with a small party, went from Santa Fé across to the Texas border, where
he met a large portion of the confederated tribes and urged on them the
necessity of keeping peace with the government, at the same time
demanding the free surrender of all white captives of the United States
held by them, concluding by telling them that all of their tribes
hereafter found north of the Arkansas would be treated as hostiles.
After a conference among themselves, the chiefs agreed to deliver up the
captives and end all difficulties, and arranged for a full meeting
later, when some absent chiefs should have returned. In regard to the
raids into Texas, they distinctly stated that they had been told by the
military officers of the government to do all the damage they could to
Texas, because Texas was at war with the United States (referring to the
recent rebellion), and that until now they were ignorant that peace had
been established. Although it is pretty certain that some of them at
least had already been told that the rebellion was at an end, yet there
can be no doubt that the peculiar relations which from the very
beginning had existed between Texas and the general government furnished
them a plausible excuse for the depredations (_Report, 20_).
THE TREATY OF MEDICINE LODGE, 1867, AND ITS RESULTS
The result of these negotiations was the treaty of Medicine Lodge on
October 21, 1867, by which the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache were
officially confederated and agreed to come upon their present
reservation (see the calendar). This treaty merits extended notice,
inasmuch as it changed the whole status of the Kiowa and their allies
from that of independent tribes with free and unrestricted range over
the whole plains to that of pensioners dependent on the government,
confined to the narrow limits of a reservation and subject to constant
military and civilian supervision. For them it marks the beginning of
the end. Moreover, on the provisions and promises of this treaty are
based all the arguments for and against the late unratified agreement of
1892. It will be necessary first to review the situation.
For a number of years the Indian problem on the plains had been
constantly growing more serious. The treatment accorded by Texas to her
native and border tribes had resulted in driving them northward to the
country of upper Red river and the vicinity of the Santa Fé trail, where
they were a constant menace both to the trading caravans and to the
frontier settlers of Kansas and Colorado. In addition to the old Santa
Fé trail the thousands of emigrants to California and Oregon had
established regular roads across the plains, in the north along the
North Platte and in the south along the base of the Staked plain, while
the discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858 brought a flood of white
settlement into the very heart of the Indian country, driving away the
buffalo and narrowing the range of the tribes. Encroachments and
reprisals were becoming chronic, and it was evident that some
arrangement must be made by which the wild tribes could be assigned a
territory remote from the line of settlement and travel, where they
might roam and hunt undisturbed, without danger of coming into collision
with the whites.
The conditions a few years previous are well summed up by the veteran
trader William Bent, at that time agent for the Cheyenne and Arapaho, in
an official report dated October 5, 1859. In it he says:
The Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes scrupulously maintain peaceful
relations with the whites and with other Indian tribes,
notwithstanding the many causes of irritation growing out of the
occupation of the gold region, and the emigration to it through
their hunting grounds, which are no longer reliable as a certain
source of food to them. These causes precipitate the necessity of
immediate and sufficient negotiations for the safety of the whites,
the emigrant roads, and the Indians....
The Kiowa and Comanche Indians have for two years appeared in full
numbers and for long periods upon the Arkansas, and now permanently
occupy the country between the Canadian and Arkansas rivers. This
is in consequence of the hostile front opposed to them in Texas, by
which they are forced toward the north, and is likely to continue
perpetual.... A smothered passion for revenge agitates these
Indians, perpetually fomented by the failure of food, the
encircling encroachments of the white population, and the
exasperating sense of decay and impending extinction with which
they are surrounded....
I estimate the number of whites traversing the plains across the
center belt to have exceeded sixty thousand during the present
season. The trains of vehicles and cattle are frequent and valuable
in proportion. Post lines and private expresses are in constant
motion. The explorations of this season have established the
existence of the precious metals in absolutely infinite abundance
and convenience of position. The concourse of whites is therefore
constantly swelling and incapable of control or restraint by the
government. This suggests the policy of promptly rescuing the
Indians and withdrawing them from contact with the whites, as the
element capable of such immediate management as may anticipate and
prevent difficulties and massacre. I repeat, then, as the
suggestion of my best judgment, that immediate and sufficient steps
be taken to assemble and finally dispose of these particular tribes
of Indians, viz, the Kiowa and Comanches, the Cheyennes, and the
Arapahoes, by reducing them, under treaties and arrangements, to
become agricultural and pastoral people, located within specific
districts, judiciously selected and liberally endowed, to which
they shall be restricted and the white men excluded from among
them. These numerous and warlike Indians, pressed upon all around
by the Texans, by the settlers of the gold region, by the advancing
people of Kansas and from the Platte, are already compressed into a
small circle of territory, destitute of food, and itself bisected
athwart by a constantly marching line of emigrants. A desperate war
of starvation and extinction is therefore imminent and inevitable
unless prompt measures shall prevent it (_Report, 21_).
Despite this warning no steps were taken toward a remedy, and in April,
1864, the irritation resulted in a war with the Cheyenne, speedily
involving also the Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, with several
bands of the Dakota. The most memorable incident of this war was the
massacre of 120 friendly Cheyenne, encamped under the protection of the
United States flag, near Fort Lyon, on Sand creek, Colorado, by Colorado
militia under Colonel Chivington, on November 29, 1864. Hostilities
ended with treaties made with the five tribes chiefly concerned at the
mouth of the Little Arkansas (now Wichita, Kansas), in October, 1865, as
already noted. Short as the war had been, it had cost the government
over $30,000,000 and an unknown number of lives (_Report, 22_).